FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 24, 2008

Selby-Tallman wins national championship in outdoor hammer

Women's Hammer Results | Women's 10k Results | Women's Shot Put Results | Men's High Jump Results | Men's Decathlon

Pomona, Calif. -- Missouri Southern senior thrower Jessica Selby-Tallman capped her stellar four-year career by picking up the national championship in the hammer and a second place finish in the shot put in day two of the 2008 NCAA Division II Outdoor Track and Field Championships.

Selby-Tallman (Galena, Mo.) was second after the preliminary rounds in the hammer and had fell to third entering the final throw, but exploded with a heave of 191 feet, ten inches to claim the national title. She defeated second place Audrey Oswald of Humboldt State by eight inches.

Just a few short hours later, Selby-Tallman broke her own outdoor school record in the shot put with a distance of 51 feet, three inches, but couldn't equal the distance of 51 feet, 11 and three quarter inches thrown by Wayne State's Katie Wilson. Selby-Tallman finished second and picked up her fourth All-American honor in outdoor events.

The Lions, all toll, had five All-Americans on day two. Selby-Tallman's two in the hammer and shot, as well as Corey Reynolds (Neosho, Mo.) in the high jump, Phillip Horn (Coffeyville, Kan.) in the decathlon and Kimi Shank (Rolla, Mo.) in the 10k.

Shank placed fifth in the 10k with a time of 35:48.64 to earn four more team points for the Lions. With Selby-Tallman's 18 points, the Lions stand in third place overall with 22 team points behind UC-San Diego's 32 and Abilene Christian's 26.5.

Reynolds placed third in the high jump with a height of six feet, 10 and three quarter inches. Horn had personal bests in the 110 hurdles and long jump to vault him to a seventh place finish in the decathlon. He scored 6,544 points, two more than he did at the MIAA meet, and defeated MIAA Champion AJ Roth of Central Missouri. TJ Britton just missed by a thousandth of a second qualifying for the finals in the 800m, running a 1:51.91.

The Southern women still have five athletes competing in today's final day, while the men have two. Cortney Vie and Jessica Self will both be competing in the discus, while Jill Weeks will throw the javelin. Both Shank and Kara Eckard qualified for the finals of their events in the 5k and 3k steeplechase, respectively. Both Jacob Williams and Russell Ellis will be competing in the pole vault.